Concern over lack of support by Government

The Government was criticised for failing to publicly endorse its own expert report on alcohol.

There was also concern that the status of the report had been downgraded from being the Government’s strategy to tackle alcohol misuse, to being the report of an expert group.

Fergus McCabe, a community representative on the national substance misuse strategy steering group, said he was “extremely disappointed at the lack of political support” for the report.